TITLE:
Sesame Crop: An Underexploited Oilseed Holds Tremendous Potential for Enhanced Food Value
AUTHORS:
Niti Pathak, Ashwani Kumar Rai, Ratna Kumari, Adarshana Thapa, Kangila Venkataraman Bhat
KEYWORDS:
Sesame, Nutraceutical, Breeding, Germplasm, Genetic Diversity
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.5 No.6,
May
19,
2014
ABSTRACT:
Sesame, an important oilseed crop, highly valued for its oil quality
contains plethora of nutritive substances such as proteins, carbohydrates,
polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), lignans (sesamin and sesamolin),
tocopherol, phytosterols, phytates and other micronutrients. The presence of
these substances enhances the keeping quality of oil by preventing oxidative
rancidity. Benefits of this underexploited crop include antioxidative,
anticancer, antihypersensitive and tumor-suppressive properties. Despite of
its high nutritional value, research on this valuable oilseed is meagre due
to several biotic and abiotic stresses and absence of non-shattering cultivars.
Thus, to explore the potential of sesame as an important oilseed possessing
multifarious property, we have tried to provide a detailed overview of the crop
and its genetic diversity available throughout the world. Sesame is a promising
target oilseed crop for biotechnological applications and marker based studies.
The genetic manipulation in the crop along with other
strategies would enable development of varieties with high nutritional and
functional value. Our aim is to explore the hidden heterogeneity in the crop
and provide impetus for valuable oilseed research.